About The Students of Springfield Street

The Students of Springfield Street follows twenty-four hours in the lives of six friends, examining the intricate weave of words, actions and emotions that unknowingly link and change the direction of their lives and how difficult it can be when debt, sickness, lies, drugs, pregnancy, unrequited love and assault weave their way into their ordinary lives.

The Students of Springfield Street follows twenty-four hours in the lives of six friends, examining interpersonal connections and the intricate weave of words, actions and emotions that unknowingly link and change the direction of their day.

Opening with a birthday meal for Sarah, the group eat, drink and discuss their views on life, love and luck. The next day seemingly little has changed and life goes on for Christiano as he tries to kick the habit and earn parental respect; law student and Sarah’s older brother, Michael faces the implications of borrowing money from the wrong sort of lender; Daniel, Sarah’s confidante, has to balance the support he offers to her dreams of dancing with his own feelings about her; Michael’s girlfriend Jessica works in a coffee shop and struggles with the demands of her rich-kid boss Ashley, who has to deal with issues of her own – including what happened the previous night.

Telling the story from each character’s perspective, The Students of Springfield Street is an intriguing observation of how difficult it can be when debt, sickness, lies, drugs, pregnancy, unrequited love and assault weave their way into their ordinary lives.

The film marks the debut of British director, Steve Johnson, who penned the screenplay a number of years ago. Shot on RED in Glasgow, Scotland, in 23 days, using a largely unknown cast, ‘borrowed’ locations and generously donated lights, props and production equipment. Steve crowd funded the $6,000 to fund the production in just four weeks.

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Directors Statement

I wanted a film that would spark some discussion over tone, style and the typical Scottish film. Most films in Scotland are currently based around heavy drug taking, unemployment or zombies and I wanted to bring a fresh look at young people in a very stylised way. I'd seen many stories on the internet about American filmmakers making ultra low-budget feature films and thought why couldn't we do the same. There are a lot of short films getting made, but very few features at this scale in Scotland.

I already has access to a good amount of the equipment that I needed to make a film. We held auditions and cast from an extraordinary pool of talented actors around Glasgow, shot at various locations around Glasgow and Central Scotland, edited, graded and exhibited all within Scotland, which is an amazing achievement and all in only 23-days.

Creatively, as a team of actors and filmmakers, we set out to make something that looks amazing and that taught us all the process of film making. I think it turned out well for our first feature film.